The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-03-25
WOMEN PLEAD.
The w. C. T. U. Issues an Address to LiquOk
Dealers.

Dealers.
CHICAGO, March IS-The National WON.
ans Temperance Union issued an address
yesterday to the brewers, distiIlers, recti-
fiers, wholesale dealers and saloon-keepers
in accordance with a resolution adopted at
the annual convention in Minneapolis last
October. 1t is in the form of "a plea, and
the people to whom it is directed are ad-
dressed as ''brothers." 1t says:
From the days of the crusade in 1874, until
this Gay we have been in the habit of plead.
ing with you personally and by letter and ad-
dress to give up the business of making and
selling Intoxicating liquors as a drink. And to
your credit be it said, that in the vast major
fty OF instances you have treated us not only
with poliueness but with Kindness. In our
great and successful campaigns for pr6hibiti6n
flor none of them have failed, since even Id
Ohio although we have not had constitu-
tional majority, we had over 100000 votes for
prohibition to less than 100000 for license, and
in Kansas, Maine, Iowa and Rhode Island, we
gained the amendment in all these campaigns);
We appeal to you to say if we have ever man
Tested spirit OF harshness or bravado. On
the contrary we have spoken considerably OF
you as men, reserving our denunciations for
the business in which you are engaged, for the
laws by which a legal status is accorded to
that business, for the Legislatures which enact
such laws, and the voters who are the power
behind this throne of iniquity and shame.
The address declares that many of the
men engaged in the liquor traffic are pos
sessed of the most generous attributes, but
among them are to be found some of the
most unfortunate victims Of drink. 1t con-
tiHues:
B Inalmost every State and Territory we have
sent out our appeal to the Legislature for pro-
lection from this curse, and though often pre-
viously disappointed plea has not been
altogether in vain. For thirteen years we have
petltioned Congress and at last secured in the
Scientific Temperance Education bill the first
general to rs
annals, while our pitifu cry to the voters of the
Nation has been responded to by local option
laws and constitutional amendments covering
nearly half the inhabited area of the republic.
But we have never until now come with the uni
ted voices OF the white ribbon women to that
small faction Of men who make and sell the
poisonous drink against which we are fighting
the drinks that nerve with dangerous strength
arms so much stronger than our own and at the
same time so steal away the brain that ought
to guide those manly arms, that they are no
longer woman's shelter and protection, but her
worst enemy. We bring our plea then, straight
to the source of woman's direst calamity and
sorrow, and lay 1t at your feet. BY the testi-
mOny of courts and juries the liquor traffic Is
the cause of eighty per cent. of all crime and
ninety per cent. of all the pauperism in this
country. We know you say: 1T is great in
dustry and pays enormous revenue to the State"
But we know also that for every dollar it puts
into the public treasury two have been paid out
in securing the trial of criminals it creates and
III 4AldhIut tsiA4Al6 Tic pduBCAASAA IL pAOOuCCSs
The address discusses the question as to
whether prohibition prohibits, and declares
that experience proves that it does in all
practical senses and that this fact is real
lied and acknowledged by the manufactur-
ers. 1t quotes from the resolutions passed
by liquor men in favor of license, says their
Endorsement of license condemns the system
and concludes;
We have here addressed the manufacturer
and wholesale dealer as well as the dispenser Of
strong drink, because we think an undue share
OF denunciation has fallen on the saloon keeper,
who is but the catspaw to take out of the fire
the chestnuts of the rich man back of him.
Our observation teaches US that the stock and
fixtures of the saloon usually belong to the
brewer, distiIler or wholesale dealer who ''sets
up in business some man, ignorant and poor,
who sells what the capitalist furnishes. Nor
ally this rich man is under deeper condemna-
tion than his less enlightened representative
who pours out the drink. collects tho price
thereof, and hands over the lions share OF
profit to the manufacturer and the Govern